Eugene V. Debs, a native Hoosier, was the best-known American socialist of his time. He ran for
president in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. In each election he won between 3% and 6% of
the vote. Debs remarks about prudence, and his visit to three fellow Socialists imprisoned for
speaking against the government, illustrate the climate of government repression during World
War I. The Espionage and Sedition Acts (passed during the war) made it illegal to speak in
support of Germany or in opposition to the American war effort. The U.S. government used this
speech as evidence to convict Debs of violating the Acts. The government also prosecuted over
2,000 other Americans for the expression of ideas. Many considered Debs' case a miscarriage of
justice - - as is clear from the results of the 1920 presidential election. He won over 3% of the
vote, despite being a federal prisoner at the time. President Harding pardoned him on Christmas
Day, 1920. -smv

N.B. Material marked thus ([]) was in the text of the speech as it was originally reported. My
editorial additions are marked thus ({}). Paragraph numbers apply to this excerpt and not the
original text.

{1}To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and
children
who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege;
[Applause] a duty of love.

{2}I have just returned from a visit over yonder [pointing to the
workhouse],
where three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their
devotion to the cause of the working class. [Applause.] They have come to
realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise
the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy
safe in the world. [Applause.]

{3}I realize that, in speaking to you this afternoon, there are certain
limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I must be exceedingly
careful, prudent, as to what I say, and even more careful and prudent as
to how I say it. [Laughter.] I may not be able to say all I think; [Laughter
and applause] but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. [Applause.]
I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant
and coward in the streets. [Applause and shouts.] They may put those boys
in jail — and some of the rest of us in jail — but they can not put the Socialist
movement in jail. [Applause and shouts.] Those prison bars separate their
bodies from ours, but their souls are here this afternoon. [Applause and
cheers.] They are simply paying the penalty that all men have paid in all
the ages of history for standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way
to better conditions for mankind. [Applause.] . . . .

{4}Are we opposed to Prussian militarism? [Laughter. ] [Shouts from
the crowd
of "Yes. Yes."] Why, we have been fighting it since the day the Socialist
movement was born; [applause] and we are going to continue to fight it,
day and night, until it is wiped from the face of the earth. [Thunderous
applause and cheers.] Between us there is no truce — no compromise.

{5}But, before I proceed along this line, let me recall a little history,
in which I think we are all interested.

{6}In 1869 that grand old warrior of the social revolution, the elder
Liebknecht,
was arrested and sentenced to prison for three months, because of his war,
as a Socialist, on the Kaiser and on the Junkers that rule Germany. . . .
. Even in that early day, almost fifty years ago, these leaders, these forerunners
of the international Socialist movement were fighting the Kaiser and fighting
the Junkers of Germany. [Great applause and cheers.] They have continued
to fight them from that day to this. [Applause.] Multiplied thousands of
Socialists have languished in the jails of Germany because of their heroic
warfare upon the despotic ruling class of that country. [Applause.] . . .
.

{7}And, while {Theodore} Roosevelt was being entertained royally by
the German
Kaiser, that same Kaiser was putting the leaders of the Socialist Party in
jail for fighting the Kaiser and the Junkers of Germany. [Applause.] Roosevelt
was the guest of honor in the white house of the Kaiser, while the Socialists
were in the jails of the Kaiser for fighting the Kaiser. [Applause.] Who then
was fighting for democracy? Roosevelt? [Shouts of "no."] Roosevelt, who was
honored by the Kaiser, or the Socialists who were in jail by order of the
Kaiser? [Applause.] . . . .

{8}A little more history along the same line. In 1902 Prince Henry paid
a
visit to this country. Do you remember him? [Laughter.] I do, exceedingly
well. Prince Henry is the brother of Emperor Wilhelm. Prince Henry is another
Beast of Berlin, an autocrat, an aristocrat, a Junker of Junkers — very much
despised by our American patriots. He came over here in 1902 as the representative
of Kaiser Wilhelm; he was received by Congress and by several state legislatures.
. . . Our plutocracy — women and men alike — vied with each other to lick
the boots of Prince Henry, the brother and representative of the "Beast of
Berlin." [Applause.] And still our plutocracy, our Junkers, would have us
believe that all the Junkers are confined to Germany. It is precisely because
we refuse to believe this that they brand us as disloyalists. They want our
eyes focused on the Junkers in Berlin so that we will not see those within
our own borders.

{9}I hate, I loathe, I despise Junkers and junkerdom. I have no earthly
use for the Junkers of Germany, and not one particle more use for the Junkers
in the United States. [Thunderous applause and cheers.] . . . .

{10}They would have you believe that the Socialist Party consists in
the
main of disloyalists and traitors. It is true in a sense not at all to their
discredit. We frankly admit that we are disloyalists and traitors to the
real traitors of this nation. . . .

{11}Every solitary one of these aristocratic conspirators and would-be
murderers
claims to be an arch-patriot; every one of them insists that the war is being
waged to make the world safe for democracy. What humbug! What rot! What false
pretense! These autocrats, these tyrants, these red-handed robbers and murderers,
the "patriots," while the men who have the courage to stand face to face
with them, speak the truth, and fight for their exploited victims — they
are the disloyalists and traitors. If this be true, I want to take my place
side by side with the traitors in this fight. [Great applause.]

{12}The other day they sentenced Kate Richards O'Hare to the
penitentiary
for five years. Think of sentencing a woman to the penitentiary simply for
talking. [Laughter.] The United States, under plutocratic rule, is the only
country that would send a woman to prison for five years for exercising the
right of free speech. [Applause.] . . . .

{13}Who appoints our federal judges? The people? In all the history of
the
country, the working class have never named a federal judge. There are 121
of these judges and every solitary one holds his position, his tenure, through
the influence and power of corporate capital. The corporations and trusts
dictate their appointment. And when they go to the bench, they go, not to
serve, the people, but to serve the interests that place them and keep them
where they are. . . .

{14}These are not palatable truths to them. They do not like to hear
them;
and what is more they do not want you to hear them. And that is why they
brand us as undesirable citizens [laughter and applause], and as disloyalists
and traitors. If we were actual traitors — traitors to the people and to
their welfare and progress, we would be regarded as eminently respectable
citizens of the republic; we would hold high office, have princely incomes,
and ride in limousines; and we would be pointed out as the elect who have
succeeded in life in honorable pursuit, and worthy of emulation by the youth
of the land. It is precisely because we are disloyal to the traitors that
we are loyal to the people of this nation. [Applause.] . . . .

{15}Max Eastman [applause] has been indicted and his paper
suppressed, just
as the papers with which I have been connected have all been suppressed.
What a wonderful compliment they pay us! [Laughter and applause.] They are
afraid that we may mislead and contaminate you. You are their wards; they
are your guardians and they know what is best for you to read and hear and
know. [Laughter.] They are bound to see to it that our vicious doctrines
do not reach your ears. And so in our great democracy, under our free institutions,
they flatter our press by suppression; and they ignorantly imagine that they
have silenced revolutionary propaganda in the United States. What an awful
mistake they make for our benefit! As a matter of justice to them we should
respond with resolutions of thanks and gratitude. Thousands of people who
had never before heard of our papers are now inquiring for and insisting
upon seeing them. They have succeeded only in arousing curiosity in our literature
and propaganda. And woe to him who reads Socialist literature from curiosity!
He is surely a goner. [Applause.] I have known of a thousand experiments
but never one that failed. . . .

{16}Socialism is a growing idea; an expanding philosophy. It is
spreading
over the entire face of the earth: It is as vain to resist it as it would
be to arrest the sunrise on the morrow. It is coming, coming, coming all
along the line. Can you not see it? If not, I advise you to consult an oculist.
There is certainly something the matter with your vision. It is the mightiest
movement in the history of mankind. What a privilege to serve it! I have
regretted a thousand times that I can do so little for the movement that
has done so much for me. [Applause.] The little that I am, the little that
I am hoping to be, I owe to the Socialist movement. [Applause. ] It has given
me my ideas and ideals; my principles and convictions, and I would not exchange
one of them for all of Rockefeller's bloodstained dollars. [Cheers.] It has
taught me how to serve — a lesson to me of priceless value. It has taught
me the ecstasy in the handclasp of a comrade. It has enabled me to hold high
communion with you, and made it possible for me to take my place side by
side with you in the great struggle for the better day; to multiply myself
over and over again, to thrill with a fresh-born manhood; to feel life truly
worthwhile; to open new avenues of vision; to spread out glorious vistas;
to know that I am kin to all that throbs; to be class-conscious, and to realize
that, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color or sex, every man, every
woman who toils, who renders useful service, every member of the working
class without an exception, is my comrade, my brother and sister — and that
to serve them and their cause is the highest duty of my life. [Great applause.]
. . . .

{17}Yes, my comrades, my heart is attuned to yours. Aye, all our
hearts now
throb as one great heart responsive to the battle cry of the social revolution.
Here, in this alert and inspiring assemblage [applause] our hearts are with
the Bolsheviki of Russia. [Deafening and prolonged applause.] Those heroic
men and women, those unconquerable comrades have by their incomparable valor
and sacrifice added fresh luster to the fame of the international movement.
Those Russian comrades of ours have made greater sacrifices, have suffered
more, and have shed more heroic blood than any like number of men and women
anywhere on earth; they have laid the foundation of the first real democracy
that ever drew the breath of life in this world. [Applause.] And the very
first act of the triumphant Russian revolution was to proclaim a state of
peace with all mankind, coupled with a fervent moral appeal, not to kings,
not to emperors, rulers or diplomats but to the people of all nations. [Applause.]
Here we have the very breath of democracy, the quintessence of the dawning
freedom. The Russian revolution proclaimed its glorious triumph in its ringing
and inspiring appeal to the peoples of all the earth. In a humane and fraternal
spirit new Russia, emancipated at last from the curse of the centuries, called
upon all nations engaged in the frightful war, the Central Powers as well
as the Allies, to send representatives to a conference to lay down terms
of peace that should be just and lasting. Here was the supreme opportunity
to strike the blow to make the world safe for democracy. [Applause.] Was
there any response to that noble appeal that in some day to come will be
written in letters of gold in the history of the world? [Applause.] Was there
any response whatever to that appeal for universal peace? [From the crowd.
"No!"] No, not the slightest attention was paid to it by the Christian nations
engaged in the terrible slaughter. . . .

{18}Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and
plunder. In the
Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers
may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to
increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war
upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the
modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war. [Applause.] The
feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists
of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles.
The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe
that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic
duty to fall upon one another and to cut one another's throats for the profit
and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war
in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject
class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain
and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all
to lose — especially their lives. [Applause.]

{19}They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your
patriotic
duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But
in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice
in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation
in any age has ever been declared by the people.

{20}And here let me emphasize the fact — and it cannot be
repeated too often
— that the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who
make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood
and furnish the corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring
war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They
alone declare war and they alone make peace. . . .

{21}If war is right let it be declared by the people. You who have your
lives
to lose, you certainly above all others have the right to decide the momentous
issue of war or peace. [Applause.] . . . .

{22}What a compliment it is to the Socialist movement to be thus
persecuted
for the sake of the truth! The truth alone will make the people free. [Applause.]
And for this reason the truth must not be permitted to reach the people.
The truth has always been dangerous to the rule of the rogue, the exploiter,
the robber. So the truth must be ruthlessly suppressed. That is why they
are trying to destroy the Socialist movement; and every time they strike
a blow they add a thousand new voices to the hosts proclaiming that socialism
is the hope of humanity and has come to emancipate the people from their
final form of servitude. [Applause.] . . . .

{23}They are pressing forward, here, there and everywhere, in all the
zones
that girdle the globe. Everywhere these awakening workers, these class-conscious
proletarians, these hardy sons and daughters of honest toil are proclaiming
the glad tidings of the coming emancipation, everywhere their hearts are
attuned to the most sacred cause that ever challenged men and women to action
in all the history of the world. Everywhere they are moving toward democracy
and the dawn; marching toward the sunrise, their faces all aglow with the
light of the coming day. These are the Socialists, the most zealous and enthusiastic
crusaders the world has ever known. [Applause.] They are making history
that will light up the horizon of coming generations, for their mission
is the emancipation of the human race. They have been reviled; they have
been ridiculed, persecuted, imprisoned and have suffered death, but they
have been sufficient to themselves and their cause, and their final triumph
is but a question of time.

{24}Do you wish to hasten the day of victory? Join the Socialist Party!
Don't
wait for the morrow. Join now! [Applause.] Enroll your name without fear
and take your place where you belong. You cannot do your duty by proxy.
You have got to do it yourself and do it squarely and then as you look yourself
in the face you will have no occasion to blush. You will know what it is
to be a real man or woman. You will lose nothing; you will gain everything.
[Applause.] Not only will you lose nothing but you will find something of
infinite value, and that something will be yourself. And that is your supreme
need — to find yourself — to really know yourself and your purpose in life.
[Applause.]

{25}You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for
something
better than slavery and cannon fodder. [Applause.] You need to know that
you were not created to work and produce and impoverish yourself to enrich
an idle exploiter. You need to know that you have a mind to improve, a soul
to develop, and a manhood to sustain. . . . .

{26}They are continually talking about your patriotic duty. It is not
their but your patriotic duty that they are concerned about.
There is a decided difference. Their patriotic duty never takes them to the
firing line or chucks them into the trenches. . . .

{27}It is only necessary to label a man "I.W.W." to have him lynched
as they
did Praeger, an absolutely innocent man. He was a Socialist and bore a German
name, and that was his crime. A rumor was started that he was disloyal and
he was promptly seized and lynched by the cowardly mob of so-called "patriots."

{28}War makes possible all such crimes and outrages. And war comes
in spite
of the people. When Wall Street says war the press says war and the pulpit
promptly follows with its Amen . In every age the pulpit has been
on the side of the rulers and not on the side of the people. That is one
reason why the preachers so fiercely denounce the I.W.W. . . .

{29}Political action and industrial action must supplement and sustain
each
other. You will never vote the Socialist republic into existence. You will
have to lay its foundations in industrial organization. The industrial union
is the forerunner of industrial democracy. In the shop where the workers
are associated is where industrial democracy has its beginning. Organize
according to your industries! Get together in every department of industrial
service! United and acting together for the common good your power is invincible.

{30}When you have organized industrially you will soon learn that you
can
manage as well as operate industry. You will soon realize that you do not
need the idle masters and exploiters. They are simply parasites. They do
not employ you as you imagine but you employ them to take from you what you
produce, and that is how they function in industry. You can certainly dispense
with them in that capacity. You do not need them to depend upon for your
jobs. You can never be free while you work and live by their sufferance.
You must own your own tools and then you will control your own jobs, enjoy
the products of your own labor and be free men instead of industrial slaves.

{31}Organize industrially and make your organization complete. Then
unite
in the Socialist Party. Vote as you strike and strike as you vote. . . .

{32}When we unite and act together on the industrial
field and when we vote together on election day we shall develop the supreme
power of the one class that can and will bring permanent peace to the world.
We shall then have the intelligence, the courage and the power for our great
task. In due time industry will be organized on a cooperative basis. We shall
conquer the public power. We shall then transfer the title deeds of the railroads,
the telegraph lines, the mines, mills and great industries to the people
in their collective capacity; we shall take possession of all these social
utilities in the name of the people. We shall then have industrial democracy.
We shall be a free nation whose government is of and by and for the people.
. . .

{33}Yes, in good time we are going to
sweep into power in this nation and throughout the world. We are going to
destroy all enslaving and degrading capitalist institutions and re-create
them as free and humanizing institutions. The world is daily changing before
our eyes. The sun of capitalism is setting; the sun of socialism is rising.
It is our duty to build the new nation and the free republic. We need industrial
and social builders. We Socialists are the builders of the beautiful world
that is to be. We are all pledged to do our part. We are inviting — aye
challenging you this afternoon in the name of your own manhood and womanhood
to join us and do your part.

{34}In due time the hour will strike and
this great cause triumphant — the greatest in history — will proclaim the
emancipation of the working class and the brotherhood of all mankind. [Thunderous
and prolonged applause.]